The title of this thread is straight up Americana. Our version: the house in which I began life was...spartan. Ok, perhaps ranchy. Ok, a half dozen government agencies would put parents in jail if a glass of water would freeze on the night stand over night. But we had real running water and no path out back for us - provided we remembered to crack the water at night. Got a tip for the government arbiters that would harshly judge our abode: mom playing piano out of the Methodist hymnal at bedtime more impacted fitness than their "standards." Sorry, I can't write about mom's cooking without aspersing our overlordes - sure sigh of old age. So, we had a cold house, and my mom is about the worst cold weather pansie of all time. Of course the only remedy is "to use the oven to warm up the house." Sure, roast beef will warm the house, but if you really want to get warm, you gotta have homemade bread with everything. And apple pie that never saw a can for anything. Today, mom lives in town, has a little meter on the wall that makes the house a sweat lodge, and cooks with the phone (carryout).

Lot of old ranch houses used the oven and the smell of something cooking to warm up the family.We did have a couple up the road that had to sit around oven with the door open and a blanket behind them to keep warm. They shouldn't had been living there but they did.I used to blow snow off their road for a promise and would take them a deer for meat when I could.Felt sorry for the woman and the man was just a sad case.

When we were young with a little one, we moved into an old house with a stoker coal furnace and not much insulation. Plus it had a big pane window on the north end of the house where the dining room was. When the wind blew, it could blow your hat off if you stood in front of the window.I spent a lot of time with the baby in the kitchen of that house with the oven on and the door shut to the dining room. The next yearwe had time to put visquene over the big window (it went from the ceiling to the floor) to seal it up and we put straw or hay bales around the old foundation of the house. That helped immensely and we were quite comfortable in that old house. We lived there for10 years and never had to live in the kitchen again. I do remember that old furnace belching smoke though. Ugh! I loved it there though, was sad when we left.

There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.

Some popcorn sure seems like a good idea this evening.......fortunately, 'the man of the house' didn't see that! After that long, cold trip to Rapid City yesterday, I'm not looking for even that simple an extra job tonight. I'm even putting off concocting something for potluck noon meal at church tomorrow. Last minute will work.........again. I'm a morning person, not very creative at night.

Woke up to 51 degrees f in the house sat morning fell asleep before my evening boiler fill but at -30 51 felt pretty warm when i got inside. Our house is big and heats hard so 54 -55 is a normal morning here in january

we canned mom's old laying hen in cans at a cannery in Preston Id. Well every body's a little achy flu today, so I open up a can took meat off the bones , soften up some garlic , onion, celery and carrots in a Dutch oven . Added the meat broth left in the can and some water and chicken bullion powder (buy it Bulk at WinnCo). All while sue uses up some of our turkey eggs with some whole wheat flower , rolled out and cut into wide noodles , they drying till it get close to diner time.